StarTalk Live! at the Apollo (Part 1)

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About This Episode

It’s not your typical night at the Apollo when Neil deGrasse Tyson and Eugene Mirman welcome Senator Cory Booker, science evangelist Dr. Ainissa Ramirez and comedians Maeve Higgins and Phoebe Robinson to the historic theater in Harlem, NYC. It’s not your typicalStarTalk Live!either. Instead of focusing on a single topic, the entire show orbits the Senator’s life in three subjects: social media, the physics of football (he was named to the same All-USA H.S. Football Team as Emmitt Smith), and STEM education. Dr. Ramirez is an expert in all three, having taught mechanical engineering at Yale and co-written Newton’s Football: The Science Behind America’s Game. You’ll hear Neil get schooled about Deflategate, what causes concussions, the “weaponizing” of football helmets, and how to fix the NCAA. You’ll also learn how there used to be more women than men in STEM classes, why educating prisoners in STEM fields can reduce recidivism, the dangers of the “prison industrial complex” and the disproportionate jailing of people of color for non-violent crimes.